


run away with me?

by TheQueenInTheNorth



Series: lou does the kink bingo 2020 [3]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Genderswap, Secret Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:00:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22379095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheQueenInTheNorth/pseuds/TheQueenInTheNorth
Summary: There are lines that oughtn't be crossed, Princess Kassiopeia and her guard Sinar know this. They find it harder than it should be.
Relationships: Kasius/Sinara (Marvel)
Series: lou does the kink bingo 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1591909
Comments: 6
Kudos: 4
Collections: MCU Kink Bingo Round 4





	run away with me?

**Author's Note:**

> for the bingo square "characters are in a secret relationship"

Sinar is fighting sleep, too afraid to wake again and find he has only been dreaming. He has longed for this, in his weakest moments, all the while knowing he'd do well to keep his distance. For the princess' sake as much as his own. The Emperor already takes any chance he has to remind her she is a disappointment - falling into bed with her lowborn guard will only make things worse if they are discovered.

It is near impossible to remember any of that reasoning when she smiles at him just so, when she stands too close and trusts him too earnestly, when she rises onto her tiptoes with a silent question on her lips, and then her mouth on his. And now, with her tucked against his side and sound asleep.

She is mumbling to herself occasionally and Sinar can’t help but chuckle, the last bit of tension easing away. She is always talking about something or other; he really shouldn’t have expected sleep to change that.

He brushes a stray lock of hair out of her face, fingers trailing across her cheek and down her neck, back up again to trace the swing of her lips. He can still barely believe he is here with her. But not even in his wildest dreams could he conjure up the image of her blinking at him sleepily, a slow smile spreading across her face.

“Are you watching me sleep?”Kassiopeia asks.

_ Run away with me, _ he wants to say, echo the joke she’s made before, long ago, but really mean it. Instead, he leans closer and kisses her forehead, and says,“You’re beautiful.”

That is true, too, and does not cross any further lines.

* * *

Kassiopeia was sick of guards, of royal duties, of expectations she was bound to fail.

Nevertheless, she put on her mask, polite yet aloof, calculating but charming, and inclined her head to the new guard assigned to her.

He was tall and muscular and battle-tested, well suited to protect her, Faulnak had said. He was quiet but clever, Krenyk had told her, if unfortunately very lowborn.

What they had failed to mention: He was handsome, oh so very handsome.

The girl in her that had sneaked her older cousins’ romance novels threatened to melt into a puddle at the thought of all those highborn ladies swept away by handsome soldiers.

The cynic that knew she’d only ever be wed for her name and status wondered just how dull and arrogant he’d turn out to be. His rank in spite of his birth combined with the looks… well, he certainly didn’t need an actual personality to get noticed.

The princess she was never allowed to stop being introduced herself.

A few days later, when he beat her at Malech in just a few dozen turns - she had not lost to anyone since her mother’s death - she found herself smiling at him. Clever, indeed.

* * *

The capital does not afford much privacy, not for a princess and not for her guard. But the rumours have been swirling around for much longer than there has been truth to them and so Sinar lets Kassiopeia kiss any worry away before he can dwell on it too much.

Not that he tries to protest very seriously.

Every stolen moment, every touch, every kiss teaches him why people call it love making, and he might be a fool for her, but he is not fool enough to disabuse her of her silly notion that she might be in love with someone so far beneath her.

Until she realises this is a mistake, until she grows tired of him and all the things he cannot offer her, until then he will cherish every second with her.

* * *

Kassiopeia sat with her legs tucked under, wine in hand and trying not to spill anything as she gesticulated with the glass.

She was too comfortable with Sinar, she thought sometimes, but he made it too easy to be. He was kind and didn’t mind her chattering and could convey messages with the slightest tilt of his head, and maybe she wanted to kiss him far more than she wanted to admit even to herself, but she wasn’t about to jeopardise their budding friendship by throwing herself at him.

Even if his laugh was as smooth as chocolate and she couldn’t help but let her gaze dip to his lips.

She liked making him laugh. She liked being considered funny.

Usually she was just pretty, or graceful.

Or a disappointment if you asked her father. Or a ditz if you asked Faulnak.

“And then what?”Sinar prompted.

He really wanted her to tell him, too.

The bloody romance novels had gotten it all too bloody accurately.

* * *

She’s mapping out the bruises across his torso with featherlight touches, tutting and fretting all the while.

“You should’ve seen the other guy,”Sinar says, hoping for a smile, at least.

It’s more of a grimace. It’s sad.

“I did.” She sighs.“Faulie was not pleased with the broken nose, I’ll tell you that.”

She doesn’t say more on the matter, just curls up against him and kisses the bruise at the juncture of his neck and shoulder.

They both know why Faulnak has taken his moods out on Sinar in training lately. Dismissing him as Kassiopeia’s guard would all but confirm the rumours so Faulnak can’t really do anything.

Well, he could kill him, Sinar supposes.

A small price to pay, all things considered.

* * *

No one had even brought up the idea of betrothal, not yet, but Kassiopeia was fully aware that Tyan and his family had visited for that purpose.

It had not come to pass, luckily. Father’s paranoia had played in her favour for once. All of Faulnak’s whisper could not sway him.

She was free, for however long it took her brother to remind their father of her only worth, being the soft, weak disappointment she was: marry well and bring them more power.

For now she could still sit with Sinar and braid his beautiful long hair and pretend she didn’t dream of running her fingers through it, and down his back, pulling him to her, close and closer.

It could never be, not with her unavoidable betrothal and all the expectations that came with it hanging over them. She could not ask him to paint that target on his back. Unless -

“Run away with me?”she whispered.

The following silence was so loud she knew he had heard her. It only went on for a second or two; it felt like an eternity.

Then he laughed, and she comforted herself with how much she loved that sound.

* * *

“Run away with me.”

The words are out before Sinar has even realised he’s thought them.

Kassiopeia falls silent mid-sentence, glaring at him. There is hurt there, too, not hidden by her jutting her chin and crossing her arms.“So you think I can’t win this, too?”

Sinar sighs, slowly shakes his head.“I think if anyone could win it, it would be you.”

Her father is sending her on a suicide mission, she has said it herself. She is too damn stubborn and proud not to go. Sinar is too foolish not to follow. He’d follow her anywhere, even to certain death.

Her posture relaxes, her face softens. She steps forward and he wraps her in his arms.

“I have a strategy,”she promises against his shoulder.

No strategy can win that battlefield, Sinar is certain, not with Faulnak leading most of the Emperor’s forces elsewhere.

* * *

She was supposed to negotiate a trade deal but by the time they made it to the base, it had been taken over by enemy forces.

They were on an old ship now, one that would take them back to Hala much slower but would draw no attention.

She ought to be worried, she supposed. Instead, it felt a little like a vacation. It felt a little like running away. She thought about changing course, going somewhere where they would not be a princess and her guard, but just themselves.

She thought about asking him to run away with her but she could not bear it if he laughed again, no matter how sweet that sound.

When she stepped out of the wetroom in nothing but a towel, his eyes widened, just a fraction, just enough to betray his cool facade.

Kassiopeia stepped closer, until she was almost touching, and then she was, raising onto tiptoes to let her lips against his ask the question she couldn’t bring herself to utter.

He touched her like she was something precious, setting every fibre of her being alight, and in that moment it did not matter if he loved her back, because it felt like he did, and if not, she loved him enough for the two of them.

* * *

Her generals are dead, the suggestion that they might run away together is stuck in his throat, and they are on their way to exile.

He perhaps ought to be more distraught by this sudden end to the military career he never asked for. He could not care less if he tried.

It’s terribly selfish but with her disinherited in all but actual words, there will be no betrothal of her father’s choice in her future.

She has yet to tire of Sinar; he’s started to hope she might never do so. He’s started to think she might have meant it when she asked him to run away with her.

He’s waiting for her to ask again, waiting to say “yes” if she ever does. Until then, he draws the word from her in breathless gasps and marvels at how perfectly she fits into his arms.

* * *

It was far too easy to pretend that everything could go on the way it was, with Sinar by her side and in her bed and in her heart.

They were discreet enough, most days. Her father’s fixation on warring and suspicion of other factions did the rest.

Faulnak knew, of course, but Faulnak could keep her secrets so long as it suited him as well.

She still dreamed of running away with Sinar to start a life somewhere that was all theirs, that never had to be hidden away in the shadows.

She was still trying to work up the courage to ask him again when her father decided to let her have what she had begged for - and given up on - years ago: A chance to prove herself.

Or so he called it. It was little more than a suicide mission, almost no chance of success.

But there was just the smallest hint of a chance, and Kassiopeia had never been particularly good at resisting temptation.

* * *

Faulnak’s words end in a spittle of blood, and Kassiopeia spits out everything she’s ever hated about him, about their father, about the expectations laid on her - all the things she’s confessed to Sinar in a whisper, never daring to speak them aloud before.

When she turns away from her brother’s corpse and towards Sinar, bloodied hands reaching for him, he meets her halfway and beats her to speaking,“Run away with me?”

“Yes,”she says, and then puts the true meaning to those words,“I love you.”


End file.
